Oriente Lux ("
The Light from the East") was recorded live at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2019, during the height of Europe's refugee crisis, and its intent was to support refugees. The performance includes the group
Orpheus 21, wherein musicians bring pieces (traditional songs, not classical pieces, which would be more difficult) from their own cultures to the group, and combines
Orpheus 21, plus a small children's choir, with director
Jordi Savall's own
Hesperion XXI. The latter group has been a vehicle for
Savall's explorations of the centuries-long influence of Arab music on European forms, especially those of the Iberian peninsula. The program includes traditional songs, a few more recent ones with named composers, and one European piece, a canarios by
Michael Praetorius, preceded by an improvisation; they come from Sephardic music in the West, through secular and sacred Christian pieces from the Middle East, to Bangladeshi songs. One track,
Apo xeno meros from Greece, brings several types together. The program ends with a rousing sing-along, and the purpose of the concert is laudable. Beyond this, the concert holds an interesting place in Savall's career. In a way, he is replicating something of the process by which Near Eastern and European traditions mixed. Almost all of the music is non-European, and the tunes are combined with the instruments of
Savall's group in various ways. All of which is to say that the concert is engrossing as well as useful, and a valuable piece of
Savall's large catalog. This album made classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023. ~ James Manheim
